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NASCAR at Phoenix: Inexcusable

November 10, 2012

Mike Helton, you have two phone calls to make Monday morning. They won't be easy, but that is why the president of NASCAR makes the big money.

Call one: To Rick Hendrick, owner of driver Jeff Gordon's number 24 Chevrolet. Helton needs to tell Hendrick ASAP that he needs to find another driver for the car next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Call two: To whoever made the decision to not throw the caution flag, and letting the race stay green after Jeff Burton sent Danica Patrick's car into the wall on the next to last lap. That person also needs a weekend off. Unless it was Helton himself, of course—then Brian France needs to make a call to Helton and tell him to start his vacation a week early.

As for call one: I don't care who Jeff Gordon is—how contrite he may be, what a great ambassador he has been for NASCAR—wrecking Clint Bowyer with just a few laps left is a move that requires consequences. It ruined a good day for Joey Logano, and it nearly took out points leader Brad Keselowski. Figure out the fines for the post-crash pit fight later—pull Gordon out of the car now. There is no other option.

I also don't care what a frustrating season this has been for Gordon, how his defenders will insist that he was powerless after all that frustration boiled over. Crap. He has already won more than $5.7 million this year. Suck it up. The tap Bowyer gave Gordon didn't put him in the wall—Gordon's immediate attempt to pay Bowyer back did. Sorry Jeff: Spend next weekend in your Manhattan penthouse.

As for the second call: There is no excuse for not throwing the caution flag after Patrick crashed. As quickly as it came out for the Gordon-caused crash—"accident" doesn't apply here—there was plenty of time to hit the caution lights and slow the field. The main reason was because no one knew for sure if Patrick would be able to get her car going before the leaders came around—she did, but it's a safety concern on a track as short as Phoenix to guarantee it. And then the fact that her car was gushing oil and nearly crashed winner Kevin Harvick, and did crash most of the top 15 cars behind him—was a consequence of not throwing that flag earlier.

There was no reason to let the race stay green. The broadcast was on ESPN, and it was still well before the time ESPN needed to move in—this was not a "Heidi" moment when a broadcast network thought it needed to stick to a schedule. The call was botched, and NASCAR needs to hold the decision maker responsible—just as if you or I had screwed up on our jobs at such a massive level, we'd expect more than a note in our file in human resources.

Just with Johnson losing the points lead because of a flat tire, this was a startlingly newsworthy race, not to mention the obvious tension between winner Harvick and team owner Richard Childress, after Childress learned Harvick, and presumably Budweiser, won't be back next year. The assumption there is that Harvick may suspect that Childress' central resources may be to support the Dillon brothers, Childress' grandsons, and that blood may be thicker than the ink on a contract.

That's what we need to be writing about, not Gordon's screwup and the yellow flag that never fell. Mike Helton, make your calls.